When The Daily Show returns from a hiatus, it reportedly won’t be with a permanent replacement for previous host Trevor Noah, or even a guest host. Instead, Comedy Central is taking a very different approach.
Deadline first reported earlier this week, followed up by Variety, that instead of having one central anchor leading proceedings behind the desk, The Daily Show will have a team of correspondents lead the series. That doesn’t mean that The Daily Show will never find a permanent host again, but it does mean it’s trying out a very different formula for now. Per Deadline’s report, the correspondent approach is expected to take The Daily Show “through this election year.”
Variety adds that Comedy Central will likely announce its plans for The Daily Show next week. It also notes that it isn’t clear if the network has decided upon its “final assemblage of talent” for the correspondents to lead each night. At the moment, its correspondents include Desi Lydic, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, and Dulce Sloan. One of its most popular correspondents, Roy Wood Jr., exited last year, in part because of the delay in finding a permanent host.
The Daily Show Post-Trevor Noah
It’s an unexpected approach, given the lengths that Comedy Central seemed to be going through to find a new host for one of its flagship series. Ever since Noah abruptly quit the series in 2022 after seven years, The Daily Show had been anchored by a revolving door of celebrity guest hosts, among them Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, Chelsea Handler, Charlamagne tha God, and Michelle Wolf.
The thought has largely been that The Daily Show would eventually announce a successor for Noah, given that The Daily Show, like other late-night series, always had a face behind the name, starting with Craig Kilborn, then Jon Stewart, then Noah. Hasan Minhaj was once considered a frontrunner for the job, but reportedly dropped out of the running after a New Yorker article brought into question the veracity of some of his jokes, which Minhaj pushed back on in a 20-minute YouTube video two months ago.
We’re not sure of the exact reasoning behind the correspondent-heavy approach (aside from just not being able to fill Noah’s shoes), but Variety’s report mentions that it’s “likely to save money,” certainly a priority as the economics of late-night television change in the streaming age. The Daily Show was also on hiatus amid the writers’ strike from May-September 2023.
IGN has reached out to Comedy Central for comment.
Thumbnail credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
